Browsing Tags Kampala

Two weeks of hunting and we found a place to live in Kampala, which wasn’t any moment too soon as living out of a suitcase -and in my case doing a lot of working from the hotel bed – was starting to get pretty annoying.

We contacted a number of local ‘brokers’, but most of these were actually just some people who drive you around for a fee (if they even have a car, which a lot of them don’t so you need to arrange their transport as well). They bring you to places they just happen to know which are in need of tenants, pretty much regardless of what you are looking for.

The way it works is that if you decide to take a place they additionally ask both you and the owner a commission fee, so they just knock on a lot of doors and hope somebody will bite. Of the about 10 people who took us around, only one was a legitimate broker, and he actually spoke some Dutch as he studied in Groningen for a while and is married to a Dutch woman. Unfortunately the place we were showed was nice, but right next door to a stone quarry where they regularly blow things up with dynamite – that made it easy to keep on looking…

Great view and spot for a garden party, too bad the attached house was a bit of a 'fixer'...

So, we ended up looking at maybe 25 places in total, some of which were actually quite nice, some we saw multiple times with different people, but mostly a lot at highly inflated prices or too far out of the way of what we were looking for. We also looked at furnished places, but those are only recommended if you like 1950s styling… At one point it seemed it could be a very long time before we would find something reasonable to live in. But then, as I was visiting some more places on a Thursday afternoon and was actually about to get back to the hotel (two of the places I had already seen before, one place I did like happened to be already taken, and the other places literally seemed about to fall apart), the guys taking me around suddenly thought of one more place in Buziga. “Okay, let’s view it, but that’s the final one as I am about done with it,” I said, and you guess it: the apartment was actually very nice & affordable, not too far from Marloes’ office and in a quiet neigbourhood with views of both the city and Lake Victoria.

To fit or not to fit...but in the end it did!

So, after Marloes saw the pictures and we gave it another visit together on the following Saturday morning we took it! We then quickly embarked on finding some furniture and kitchen equipment which was another challenge in itself. Furniture here you buy at one of the street side markets. We borrowed a van of SolarNow, which we somehow managed to fill up to the latest free cm3, so that night we at least had some places to sit and a bed to sleep in. Getting the stuff in the van was hilarious by the way as a bunch of friendly random helpers didn’t really grasp the concept of taking care of our newly bought stuff, but in the end it all worked out.

The next morning however we noticed there were still some things not completely in order with the apartment… To cut a long story short: after three long weeks of daily visits of various kinds of workers: electricians, plumbers, carpenters and so on, a leaking roof, days on end without any water and electricity (there are frequent 24h power cuts here), a new bathroom wall (after a carpenter accidently hit a water pipe and everything came down as a result), new doors and god knows what else, everything seems to be working O.K. now! We can take a hot shower in either of the 2 bathrooms and the generator outside spurs to life when the power goes down again. Now if somebody could just shut up those stray dogs at night and tell the mosque and church in the area to keep it down a bit at 5.30 AM, everything will be perfect

View from the pool at Cassia Lodge, almost around the corner of our place!

Other than that, good news for any potential visitors: we live near two nice resorts, so swimming pools with a great view are within a few minutes’ distance. The Cassia Lodge, which is nearest, is located on top of Buziga hill – with a bit of the luck the pool is not crowded at all, so the next best thing to having your own pool

The next item on our wish list is a 4×4 car, so we can move around a bit more easily and buy the rest of the outfitting – a comfy couch and some curtains would be very welcome . We already tried a cheap Toyota RAV 4, but it I hadn’t driven 10 meters with it – on the left side for the first time ever as well – before I had a flat tire. Later on it also appeared to have some hidden damage under the bonnet, so we quickly returned it and are on the lookout for a good deal.

After months of preparations and a few final weeks in the Netherlands which felt a bit like a farewell tour, we have finally landed at Entebbe Airport on Saturday January 14th 2012, at around 09.00 local time.

Somewhere in the early fall of 2011 Marloes accepted a job with Dutch Solar Power company SolarNow, for which she – when it was still the Rural Energy Foundation – had been in Mali a few years before already. Her job here in Uganda will be boosting the sales of Solar Home Systems, mainly for the rural markets. As Vincent works freelance as a Marketing & Strategy consultant, and serves most of his current clients through the Internet anyway, it was not too difficult to tag along and move base, just pack up the laptop and go.

After we arranged a whole bunch of things before departure, such as getting the required vaccinations and moving our personal stuff into storage, the last few weeks before departure were mainly revolving around saying goodbye. One week before we left we threw a farewell party, where in total about 100 of our friends and family came to say goodbye. This was a great evening and it was a lot of fun to see all these people one last time before we were about to leave. The last week was spent having some final goodbye meetings (having dinner in Wolfheze at Vincent’s parents, doing drinks and lunches with friends) and buying loads of small stuff we needed to take with us.

The Wednesday before departure gave us a bit of African chaos, or at least we thought so (we have been here now for one month, and without any incidents on the ground so far actually). What happened was that we went to Leiden to meet some people and buy some travel supplies, after which Marloes would go on to the Hague and Vincent to Amsterdam. But, just as we arrived and Marloes parked the car, a robbery of a jewelry store took place, including some shooting in the crowded streets – right around where the car was parked. The result was that we couldn’t take it for hours because of closed off streets and police investigations, so the day schedule went up in smoke, and we were even more eager to leave for a sunny and relaxed place. On Thursday we moved out of Amsterdam to Utrecht, to stay at Marloes’ parents.

After some stressful final packing, a whole bunch of people showed up at Schiphol Airport to wave us goodbye. A very big and nice surprise! After the final hugs and receiving some small presents to take along on the plane (a big bag of drop, yay! and some nice booklets, including a homemade survival guide of the Tinholts – brilliant!), it was time to leave.

The moment we walked through the customs gate we suddenly realized we were done arranging, planning and saying goodbye – no way back anymore at that time. Thanks to Marloes’ brother Marten, we had access to the KLM lounge at Schiphol where we could chill out and grab some complimentary Champagne to drink to our upcoming adventure, before boarding our flight with Kenya Airways to Entebbe via Nairobi.

Say what? Just 4000+ miles still to go...

Then, perhaps because it was Friday the 13th – we don’t really know – but the flight wasn’t one we will quickly forget. About one hour into the flight, we were cruising up somewhere over Germany, it was announced that there was a medical emergency on board, followed by quite a scuffle and running around. Eventually it emerged that someone in the back of the plane had actually died while we were up there in the air, leaving the aircraft crew rather panicked and unorganized. The flight just went on anyway, but the atmosphere on board was pretty eerie. The moment we landed a number of local authorities boarded the plane and we had to wait a while before we were allowed to get off, as they obviously had to sort out some things. We couldn’t imagine how the people who might be waiting in Nairobi to pick up this passenger must have been feeling when the person they were waiting for was not getting off the plane.

Mt. Kenya pretty much as we saw it from the plane, heading for Nairobi (we did not take this picture though). The image on the top of this post is also featuring Mt. Kenya.

However, just about 30 minutes before we landed at Nairobi, we flew right passed Mount Kenya at sunrise, which was quite an amazing sight and a welcome distraction. After Tanzania’s Kilimanjaro, Mount Kenya is the second highest mountain in Africa, and like the Kilimanjaro it is a popular climbing and trekking destination. So, seeing the sunrise over Mount Kenya was one item we could already tick off our lengthy list of things we would like to do and see in Africa! After leaving the plane in Nairobi we had to make a run to catch our connecting flight to Entebbe. To make things even more complicated there were actually two planes at one single gate, a big queue and no clear signs which one was ours. Then, we had our first experience what it means to be a white foreigner in Africa, suddenly everybody’s attention starts to focus on you and before you know it you are escorted across an airport platform to your plane. From there it was just a short flight to Entebbe, and because the plane flew quite low, we got some breathtaking sights of the giant Lake Victoria in the early morning, as well as the very green countryside of Uganda.

First thing you see when you enter the airport is an image of a snowcapped mountain! It is actually an advert for climbing the Rwenzori Mountains in the west of Uganda.

Arriving at Entebbe the airport was very quiet. Unfortunately, even though we planned to get the money from an ATM at Schiphol, we forgot to bring the 50 USD pp to pay for the visa at the Ugandan customs. But, they didn’t make a fuss about it and let us go through to get some money and also collect our suitcases while they held on to our passports, or so we thought. First, it took Marloes about 30 minutes to find an ATM which would accept our Maestro bank cards (Visa is king here – which we conveniently both do not have), and then Vincent managed to retrieve only 1 of the 4 suitcases. So, while Marloes went back to get our visas, Vincent was experiencing a whole bunch of African red tape and bureaucratic sluggishness.Eventually, after waiting around for over an hour and explaining to the guy at the other side of the desk how his own form seemingly needed to be completed, we could leave. Not entirely sure if we would ever see our suitcases again, but hey, we were there.

Marloes’ colleague Ronald kindly picked us up to take us to Kampala, and after a drive of about an hour we dropped by the office of SolarNow in the Kansanga neighbourhood, from where we could let the people back home know we had arrived in Africa in one piece. Then we went to grab a great sandwich at the aptly named Quality Hill (which combines a hotel, restaurant, butchery and patisserie, all owned by a Belgian guy) and checked into the Alcom Hotel for the next two weeks, which is just behind the SolarNow office. After some bargaining with our new best friend Sarah the receptionist we got the price down to EUR 15 per night for a double room, which seemed reasonable enough. That this meant that we sometimes might have water and even less frequently hot water was apparently already calculated into the price. Luckily they had a generator, the sound of which was a lot better to fall asleep to than the regular noise from the street.

View on Murchison Bay from the hotel.

In the evening, after some resting, Marloes’ boss and other colleagues picked us up for a quick bite at an Ethiopian restaurant in Kabalagala (an area which is literally infested with bars and restaurants) and some drinks afterwards at the Capital Pub, where we were introduced to what they locally call ‘mosquito’ girls and Ugandans’ fondness of English Premier League football. They watch it all and everywhere – even the Matatu’s play local radio stations with Lugandan commentary on the English football matches. Getting back to the hotel room that night we were so tired it took us a few minutes to notice that the not too big room seemed even smaller somehow… then we saw it: our suitcases had arrived, within 12 hours after arriving in Uganda! Quite amazing, especially given the fact that addresses and a mail system are pretty much non-existent here.

Twistin' at the pool

Giving directions here is mainly based on picking a land mark and then hoping the other party does not miss that landmark (when you want to go to Marloes’ office you say you need to be at the Newcastle High School). They must have gotten quite good at finding the way like that over here, because we haven’t really got lost once whilst taking a taxi or having a driver. Sending us a postcard is quite another matter however, for correspondence please stick to e-mail or facebook!

The next day was Sunday, which we spent checking out the Garden City mall in the city centre to have lunch there. This is a Western-style mall, of which there are quite a few scattered in and around the city centre, most have large Kenyan or South African supermarkets and shops filled with Western products.

W.A. & Maxima in Africa!

Afterwards we took a taxi (or ‘special hire’ as they are called here, a ‘taxi’ is actually a ‘matatu’ – which is a minibus that can hold about 14 passengers) to the Commonwealth Resort in Munyonyo, for some R&R at the Olympic size pool and fitness centre.

In the evening we took a quick look at a potential house, but it was not exactly what we were looking for. It was quite close to Marloes’ office though, and since it was owned by a Dutchman, we got our coffee served in a mug with some familiar faces. This was enough excitement for the day, since Marloes was about to embark on some busy weeks with a new job and new colleagues, involving a lot of travelling around the country, while Vincent mostly stayed in Kampala to start hunting houses and get himself sorted out…